How do I schedule a program to run on my machine periodically?

I have several machines that run 24/7. What do I do to schedule
a standard EXE file to run everyday at a specific time?

•

The Linux readers are all shouting "cron!" at their computers. Windows has
something similar, of course. And it's very, very flexible.

Just fairly well hidden.

•

In Control Panel, Scheduled Tasks, fire up
the Add Scheduled Task wizard. It will then allow you to
specific the program to run (either from it's list, or by browsing for the
program file yourself), and then define how often and/or when the program is to
be run.

I actually recommend using a batch file to wrap your program, that redirects
and logs all output:

foo.exe >log.txt 2>&1

This will log any problems that Windows might have finding, or starting, the
program. The program can, of course, be another batch file that runs a series
of commands.

The most common problem encountered is permissions relating to the account
the scheduled tasks run as. Once you've created your scheduled task, you can
select it's properties, and then specify that they run as a particular account,
if you like.

Scheduled tasks are exceptionally handy. In fact, each of my machines has a
scheduled task that runs in the middle of the night that takes care of backing
up all my data, as well as a number of other administrative tasks.

Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.